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We’ve collected the books debuting on Indiebound’s Indie Bestseller List for the week ending April 19, 2015–a sneak peek at the books everybody will be talking about next month.

(Debuted at #1 in Hardcover Nonfiction) The Road to Character by David Brooks: “Looking to some of the world’s greatest thinkers and inspiring leaders, Brooks explores how, through internal struggle and a sense of their own limitations, they have built a strong inner character. Labor activist Frances Perkins understood the need to suppress parts of herself so that she could be an instrument in a larger cause. Dwight Eisenhower organized his life not around impulsive self-expression but considered self-restraint. Dorothy Day, a devout Catholic convert and champion of the poor, learned as a young woman the vocabulary of simplicity and surrender.” (April 2015)

(Debuted at #7 in Middle Grade Readers) The Princess in Black by Shannon Hale & Dean Hale: “Princess Magnolia is having hot chocolate and scones with Duchess Wigtower when…Brring! Brring! The monster alarm! A big blue monster is threatening the goats! Stopping monsters is no job for dainty Princess Magnolia. But luckily Princess Magnolia has a secret —she’s also the Princess in Black, and stopping monsters is the perfect job for her!” (April 2015)

(Debuted at #11 in Hardcover Fiction) The Liar by Nora Roberts: “Shelby takes her three-year-old daughter and heads south to seek comfort in her hometown, where she meets someone new: Griff Lott, a successful contractor. But her husband had secrets she has yet to discover. Even in this small town, surrounded by loved ones, danger is closer than she knows—and threatens Griff, as well. And an attempted murder is only the beginning…” (April 2015)

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Diversion Books has launched a new online bookstore exclusively dedicated to the romance genre. The organizers behind EverAfter Romance have developed a free app available for download on both iOS and Android mobile devices.

Seth Kaufman, the head of the marketing and PR team, gave this statement in the press release: “One of our goals is to help partners get their eBooks in front of a truly dedicated audience. So we feature titles from all leading romance publishers, including Harlequin, Avon, Kensington, Forever, Samhain, and Ellora’s Cave, and we sell everyone from Nora Roberts, E.L. James, and Georgette Heyer to Sylvia Day, Nalini Singh, and Debbie Macomber. But we also want to create space to sell new authors and titles.”

Consumers will be able to choose from over 100,000 titles through this shop. The app will give alerts about recommendations, flash sales, and free eBooks. To celebrate the launch, romantic fiction readers who download the app and register for an account will receive a free digital copy of Alessandra Torre’s novel, Sex Love Repeat.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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This week we continue to celebrate our Fourth Blogiversary (the official date is today!) with our giveaway extravaganza.

From Carmela's Friday post:
Today, I'm thrilled to announce an extra-special giveaway in honor of our FOURTH BLOGIVERSARY. To show our appreciation to our blog readers AND to one of our favorite independent booksellers, we'll be giving away FOUR $25 gift certificates to Anderson's Bookshops! And, as a bonus, Anderson's is generously offering our winners a 20% discount, which will help defray the shipping costs if you're unable to redeem your gift certificate in person.

If you haven't already done so, hop on over and read the rest of her post for entry details as well as more information about our blog, Anderson's, and a terrific bonus poem from our very own April (who's also celebrating a birthday this week).

In follow-up to our ode to D.E.A.R. and Beverly Cleary, we Teaching Authors are discussing the great independent bookstores that play such a crucial role in getting the right books into the hands of the right readers.  I will never forget my first visit to the Tattered Cover in Denver.  I was on a business trip, and I got no other business done on that day.  [I owe a debt of gratitude to my patient boss, Stan Cohen.]

Here in exurban Maryland, we have nothing like the Tattered Cover or Anderson's.  Washington has the great Politics and Prose, but my visits to DC with kids at this point in life typically involve the Air and Space Museum, the National Mall, and a stroller.

If you ask me, the coolest and most accessible independent bookstore in my neck of the woods is Turn the Page Bookstore, owned by the husband of local (and international) celebrity Nora Roberts.  Roberts lives in rural Washington County and has singlehandedly turned the tiny town of Boonsboro into a Destination (with a capital D).  Visitors from around the country flock to the bookstore for signings by a variety of authors and may stay overnight in Roberts's nearby bed and breakfast, stop by her gift shop, or have a meal at her son's taphouse. 

In my job as an adjunct instructor at Hagerstown Community College, I am fortunate to be a part of the advisory committee for this summer's Nora Roberts Writing Institute.  Before a recent meeting at Dan's Taphouse, I slipped into Turn the Page for some speed shopping.  Unlike the sprawling Tattered Cover, it's a tiny space, with a nook devoted to children's books, a coffee bar featuring a local roaster's brews, and a terrific assortment of popular fiction, with the literary book club du month selections shelved beside the "beach reads." 

As someone who writes in what may certainly be considered marginalized genres (soap operas and children's books), I greatly appreciated the equalizing effect of this shelving method.  As a child, I fell in love with reading because it was fun and transformative.   There is much good writing in popular fiction, and I love the idea of celebrating the books people read because they want to rather than the ones they feel they have to.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Nora Roberts.
--Jeanne Marie

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Every year around this time the BookFinder.com team puts our heads together, crunches the numbers and cranks out the BookFinder.com Report; a snapshot of the nation's search trends for out-of-print books.  After 10 years of researching the most sought after out-of-print books in America, we’ve learned a few things:

• Sex still sells: 20 years after it was first published, Madonna’s Sex has been the most sought after out-of-print book on BookFinder.com for the past ten years.
• Nora Roberts has very little influence on her fans: Despite Nora Roberts pleading with her fans to avoid Promise Me Tomorrow (a book she herself has described as mediocre), the book remains painfully expensive and highly sought after. 
• Stephen King knows this pain all too well, he decided to take his novel Rage, which is about a school shooting, out-of-print some time ago and he just can't seem to shake the demand.
• Publishers should re-print more Alice Starmore books: Starmore is a rock-star of the knitting world; known for creating some of the world’s most intricate patterns and having written a number of books.  Her book Aran Knitting appeared on every BookFinder.com Report from 2003-2010 until it was re-printed in 2011, only to be replaced by Tudor Roses (#60 in 2011 and #13 in 2012).  Starmore also has several other out-of-print books including In The Hebrides (1995) and Stillwater (1996).

Many of the books we see on the BookFinder.com report persist on the list for years.  Sometimes they were simply limited-run books that remain popular and demand always outstripped supply. Sometimes a popular author decides they want a certain chapter of their writing career to stay firmly in their rearview mirror (see Roberts, Nora).  However, even after 10 years, there are still out-of-print books coming back out of the woodwork.  Here are a couple of this year’s surprises:

• Kyle Onstott’s Mandingo has featured on several past reports. However, this year the author appeared on the 2012 Report three times: Mandingo, DRUM, and The Black Sun; more than any other author.
• Big League Sales-closing Techniques by Les Dane is considered by many to be a salesman’s bible, even though it’s been out-of-print since 1971.  Word-of-mouth recommendations on internet bulletin boards and review sites have pushed the price of this out-of-print guide through the roof.

• Pure, White and Deadly; the Problem of Sugar by John Yudkin was first published in 1972 and outlines research showing that refined sweeteners are closely associated with heart disease and type-two diabetes.  The book was all but forgotten, despite being highly topical, until it was featured in Robert Lustig’s lecture “Sugar: The Bigger Truth” which attained YouTube viral success.   Because of this, Yudkin’s book was re-printed in the UK but remains out-of-print for Americans.

See the 2012 BookFinder.com Report, the hot 100 out-of-print books of the past 12 months.

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Authors Janet Evanovich and Kathryn Stockett have each sold more than a million Kindle books, joining what Amazon has termed the “Kindle Million Club.”

The authors join the likes of Stieg Larsson, James Patterson, Nora Roberts, Charlaine Harris, Lee Child, Suzanne Collins, Michael Connelly and John Locke, who have also passed the million mark in sales of their eBooks in the Kindle Store. According to the release, Stockett is the first debut novelist to reach this milestone.

Evanovich’s latest novel Smokin’ Seventeen has spent more than 100 days on the Kindle Best Seller list. Stockett’s novel, The Help, has been No. 1 on The New York Times Best Seller list and was just adapted into a film.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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Looking at the comments section for our Should Authors Dance? post, it seemed like plenty of GalleyCat readers want to see their favorite writer appear on Dancing with the Stars. Now it’s time to do something about it.

Reader Michelle Gilstrap suggested Lotus Eaters author Tatjana Soli and proposed: “[Soli] is coming to Los Angeles for a special event on October 16th, I will ask her if she would like to do it. We should start a Facebook page for her, if she says yes. This is how they got Betty White on [Saturday Night Live].”

It’s a great idea. We’ll start by letting our readers pick the best writer to appear on Dancing with the Stars–we’ve collected ten suggestions from GalleyCat readers below.  Go to this Facebook link to vote for your favorite author. We’ll count the votes and build a special Facebook page to advocate for the winning author. The ten suggestions follow below…

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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The #1 New York Times-bestselling author presents a riveting novel where a canine search and rescue volunteer fights danger and finds love in the Pacific Northwest wilderness. To most people, Fiona Bristow seems to have an idyllic life-a quaint house on an island off Seattle’s coast, a thriving dog-training school, and a challenging volunteer job performing canine search and rescues. Not to mention her three intensely loyal Labs. But Fiona got to this point by surviving a nightmare… Several years ago, Fiona was the only survivor of the Red Scarf serial killer, who shot and killed Fiona’s cop fiancé and his K-9 partner. On Orcas Island, Fiona found the peace and solitude she needed to rebuild her life. But all that changes on the day Simon Doyle barrels up her drive, desperate for her help. He’s the reluctant owner of an out-of-control puppy, foisted upon him by his mother. Jaws has eaten through Simon’s house, and he’s at his wit’s end. To Fiona, Jaws is nothing she can’t handle. Simon, however, is another matter. A newcomer to Orcas, he’s a rugged and in-tensely private artist, known for the exquisite furniture he creates from wood. Simon never wanted a puppy-and he most definitely doesn’t want a woman. Besides, the lanky redhead is not his type. But tell that to his hormones. As Fiona embarks on training Jaws, and Simon begins to appreciate both dog and trainer, the past tears back into Fiona’s life. A copycat killer has emerged out of the shadows, a man whose bloodlust has been channeled by a master with one motive: to reclaim the woman who slipped out of his hands…

This is a perfect summer read! I love Nora Roberts and her ability to pull the reader into a great story, with realistic characters and heart-stopping action. The mystery element of all of her novels put her on every reader’s MUST READ list and her latest will not disappoint. Fiona Bristow is the only survivor of a serial killer who strangled women and then buried them with a red scarf. Years later, when a copycat killer starts creeping into Fiona’s life, she realizes she may be the next intended victim. Not only does Nora Roberts tell a great story, but she tells a complete story. There is never any weak moments in her plot. Her characters are fully fleshed out and the romance angle doesn’t ever make you cringe.

I whole-heartedly recommend THE SEARCH as the perfect beach book (or rainy day book)!

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I probably achieve utter absurdity with my new Strange Horizons column, "A Story About Plot", wherein, like an awkward and amateur trapeze artist who has decided the key to success is to not believe in gravity, I try to link John Grisham, Nora Roberts, Aristotle, Shklovsky, and Peter Straub. The whole thing is, I expect, more a sign of my inevitable insanity than anything else.

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